Olfactory perceptual priming is resistant to aging and long-lasting
Single Paper Presentation

Anna Fusari
Psychology, UNED, Madrid (Spain)

Soledad Ballesteros
Departamento de Psicología Básica II (UNED), Madrid, Spain

     Abstract ID Number: 2
     Full text: Not available
     Last modified: January 9, 2006
     Presentation date: 06/19/2006 4:00 PM in Hamilton Building, Foyer
     (View Schedule)

Abstract
Previous work from our laboratory has shown not only crossmodal priming between vision and touch in young adults (Reales & Ballesteros, 1999) but also complete haptic priming in young adults, older adults and Alzheimer´s disease (AD) patients (Ballesteros & Reales, 2004). However, very few studies have investigated perceptual priming in other modalities such as smell and taste. In this paper, we present the results from a new study conducted to answer three main questions: 1) Does olfactory priming exist not only in young adults but also in older adults despite the well known age-related sensorial losses?; 2) does performance in olfactory priming as a measure of implicit memory dissociate from performance in explicit recognition; 3) olfactory priming will resist the passage of time and would it be still present after the long delay of a month after the previous study? In the study participated 20 young adults and 20 older adults that were tested in two occasions separated a month. The results showed significant olfactory perceptual facilitation in both groups and not interaction. Moreover, olfactory priming was still present after a month.